About ITFA

Tea farmers empowering tea farmers.

“To bring truly premium tea to the people of the world.” With this kind of passion, even a small tea farm is a global tea farm.

This is the dream of every artisan tea farmer. But as we all know, reality is not quite as simple. What is important in the distribution industry is scale and price. Consumers, even if they wanted to, currently have no way of knowing what kind of tea leaves are on the shelves of supermarkets.

As farmers we want to tell people the truth, but our voices seem to fade in the wind as it travels the seas, and never reach the ears of tea lovers. A gap between farmers and consumers that remains forever no matter how much we try to fill it.

As farmers we want to pour our hearts into cultivating the best tea leaves, and that is why our scale is small. If creating economies of scale requires sacrificing quality, that is a sacrifice we cannot make.

Until now, farmers like ourselves have been all but invisible in the industry, in the marketplace, and among consumers. It is time to take center stage.

Note: We’re still deliberating on final pricing for premium membership (which will allows non-farmers to receive samples of farmers’ teas).

About the ITFA

The International Tea Farms Alliance is a non-profit organization started by Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations with support from the "Japan Brand" project of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry in Japan.

ITFA Mission

The mission of the ITFA is to become a bridge between tea farmers and tea lovers around the world, as well as provide tea farmers from various production regions to connect with each other.